Gregor Etzelmüller

Embodiment in Evolution and Culture

The concepts of language prevalent in cultural and cognitive sciences regard it as a complex mental symbol system which is acquired mainly through maturation of suitable cognitive modules. In contrast, from an embodied and enactive point of view there is no fundamental separation between sensorimotor and symbolic interactions of an agent with its environment. The paper first presents arguments for an embodied basis of language production and comprehension, in particular results from cognitive neuroscience which link language processing to motor areas in the brain. The acquisition of language is then conceived as resulting from embodied interactions with others, starting from expressive or interbodily resonance, then proceeding to iconic gestures and finally leading to symbolic modes of communication. This development is essentially based on understanding others as intentional agents, which in turn is enabled by grasping their intentions as embodied in expressive, goal-directed, and pointing gestures in the context of shared practices.

The Evolution of Sin

The article develops a theological concept of the evolution of sin. In dialogue with evolutionary biology, the article clarifies how sin evolves out of the shadow side of creation. Therefore, we need to acknowledge how sin, already before the evolution of human beings, influences life. What this means for the understanding of human sin, is worked out in dialogue with evolutionary psychology on the one side and the Pauline understanding of flesh on the other side. From this perspective, sin appears as the human failure to live up to one’s divine calling by not transcending the evolutionary advance socialisation. Finally, the article addresses boundary cases in the dialogue, which undergird the specific potential of a theological understanding of sin. Theology can show how the power of sin endangers those cultural entities upon which the hopes of modernity rest in the struggle to overcome violence.

Embodied Inner Human Being: The Relationship between Inner and Outer Self in Ancient Medical and Philosophical Texts and in Paul

In this paper we take issue with George H. van Kooten’s recent argument that Paul’s concept of inner human being has a background in ancient philosophical treatises as a metaphor of the soul. We argue that its Greco-Roman physiological meaning was decisive in its adoption by Paul and that the split between ancient medicine and philosophy was not essential in antiquity. Ancient medical-philosophical texts did not focus on the core or center of a person but rather sought a deep understanding of his or her inner aspects. These texts sought to understand how it is that we can discover bodily information about this inner person and to what degree the relationship between the inner and outer person can be interpreted. At the same time, however, we are discussing Walter Burkert’s evolutionary understanding of Pauline’s concept of the inner and outer human being. Paul’s definition of the inner human being corresponds to recent anthropological concepts of embodiment insofar as the visible outer human being has an inside which, according to Paul, is not detached from the body, but must be grasped from a physical perspective.

Leib – Geist – Kultur

Die Frage nach dem Menschen ist in den letzten Jahren wieder vermehrt ins Zentrum interdisziplinarer wissenschaftlicher Debatten sowie des medialen und offentlichen Interesses geruckt. Einen nicht unerheblichen Anteil hieran haben die evolutionstheoretisch anhebenden Erklarungsversuche menschlicher Spezifika in den empirischen Anthropologien und in den Neurowissenschaften. Dem geht eine lange wissenschaftsgeschichtliche Entwicklung voraus. Seit ihrer Entstehung im 19. Jahrhundert stellt die Evolutionstheorie tradierte anthropologische Grundannahmen in Frage. Der darwinistischen Eingliederung des Menschen in die Naturgeschichte begegnete die philosophische und theologische Anthropologie des 20.